The Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and the BiH Minister of Foreign Affairs, Zlatko Lagumdžija received Ambassador of Ireland to BiH Kieran Dowling, who is based in Ljubljana.
During the meeting, Ambassador Dowling spoke to Minister Lagumdžija about the priorities for Ireland’s six-month Presidency of the European Union, whose motto is ”Stability, growth and employment”.
He pointed out that the Western Balkans and EU enlargement are among Ireland’s priorities, and that Ireland will continue to lend support to BiH on its path to EU membership.
Lagumdžija thanked Dowling for Ireland’s continuing support for BiH’s path to EU integration, and expressed his satisfaction because the Western Balkans and the politics of enlargement are among the priorities of the Irish Presidency in the Council of the European Union.
In this context, he expressed his gratitude for the invitation to participate in the BiH delegation at the informal meeting of ministers and the State Secretary for European Affairs of the Member States of the EU, which the Irish Minister for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton, organized on 20. January in Dublin.
Lagumdžija spoke with Dowling about the current political situation in the country, as well as the steps taken by the BiH Council of Ministers with the goal for further progress of the country towards EU integration, and they spoke about the implications of Croatia’s impending EU entry on BiH.
Thus, Lagumdžija said that the solution to all open questions with neighboring countries for BiH is important. Therefore, talks have intensified with Croatia in order to solve open questions (questions on borders, passing through Neum, use of Ploče port), and in the context of its entry to the EU, the possible negative implications on the economy of BiH.
They spoke about the possibility for the progress of bilateral relations between BiH and Ireland, with a focus on the possibility to develop economic cooperation between the two countries.
